Disable Smilies in This Post. Show Signature: include your profile signature. Only registered users may have signatures.

*If HTML and/or UBB Code are enabled, this means you can use HTML and/or UBB Code in your message.

If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.

T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

NASA mission managers have informed the STS-115 crew that given a poor weather forecast for a Wednesday landing at KSC and the observation of an object floating near Atlantis that they have waived landing to no earlier than Thursday, Sept. 21.

NASA may ask the crew to perform inspections of the orbiter tomorrow using the robotic arm and/or the boom.

The object was observed by Mission Control near the orbiter following standard tests of Atlantisâ€™ reaction control system about 1:45 a.m. CDT today.

CNN is showing a video of the "mystery object". Any news on what NASA thinks it is? It must be large, if we are able to see it in relation to the shuttle.

lunarrv15

whatever the object is, I guess its a speck.

couldn't spot it

I think they have dust speck on lens. give it a clean and speck gone.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by lunarrv15:I think they have dust speck on lens. give it a clean and speck gone.

Space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale addressed this thought during a media briefing held within the last hour.

They had the crew purposely move the camera to insure that the object they were seeing was not caused by dirt on the lens. Suffice to say, the object is real.

sts205cdr

From CNN:

"Mission control spotted the baffling object -- the size of which was not immediately determined -- with a video camera in the shuttle's cargo bay. The object, which circled the Earth in the same orbit as the shuttle, probably came out of the cargo bay around 2:45 a.m. EDT Tuesday because some jets had just been fired on Atlantis, (NASA spokesman Doug) Peterson said."http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/09/19/space.shuttle.ap/index.html

quote:In what could be a coincidence, engineers monitoring data from sensors mounted behind the ship's carbon composite wing leading edge panels recorded eight "events" over a two-minute period earlier today. It's not yet clear whether the data indicates an actual impact event, vibrations associated with the entry tests or some other phenomenon. While the timing was coincidental, an impact event would not be expected to trigger multiple signatures. But engineers do not yet have an explanation.

cspg

quote:Originally posted by spaceuk:Boy that needed some spotting but it is there in video. A small 'dot-like' object - best seen about midway through video against white clouds in centre of frame.

Phill

yes, it took some time to find it. Is it me (or the poor quality of the video) or the object seems to change in brightness (i.e. rotating?)?Can the shuttle approach the object as a means to find out what it is?

Chris.

Robert Pearlman

In these yet-to-be-publicly-released photographs taken by the STS-115 crew and obtained from a source by collectSPACE.com, a piece of debris is seen near the orbiter Atlantis.

[Edited by Robert Pearlman (September 19, 2006).]

LCDR Scott Schneeweis

If it remains unidentified you just know this is going to be Tabloid fodder and we will see this video footage endlessly proliferated on the SCI-FI channel as the smoking gun we are not alone...

quote:In what could be a coincidence, engineers monitoring data from sensors mounted behind the ship's carbon composite wing leading edge panels recorded eight "events" over a two-minute period earlier today.

quote:Within a few hours, engineers were able to precisely time out the data, showing the sensor was responding to vibrations associated with the hydraulic system.

tegwilym

Looks like one of those things I tape on my nose at night to keep from snoring!

Robert Pearlman

Space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale confirmed that the photographs of debris posted above were of the second event "sparkly" reported by the STS-115 crew earlier today.

"There is a considerable thought that it is just a plastic bag that came loose," said Hale during a media briefing held at Johnson Space Center.

Hale said they are not concerned by this particular debris.

In regards to the "first" debris event that caused the initial concern by mission control, there is not enough information to determine its nature.

One of the more likely candidates is the piece of shim stock that was seen protruding from the port external tank door at the beginning of the mission.

The plan for the crew is as follows:

The crew will wake-up tonight at 8:45 p.m. CDT. At 10:45 p.m., they will resume surveys of the orbiter's surfaces using the shuttle robot arm (RMS) for approximately 5 hours.

After the crew breaks for lunch, they will then unberth the boom at 4:45 a.m. CDT and begin three hours of underside surveys at 5:45 a.m.

The crew is scheduled to sleep at 12:45 p.m.

This schedule is subject to change and will depend on what the ground sees from the imagery as it is obtained. It may be that the boom is never deployed if the arm imagery suffices.

Landing is still scheduled for Thursday morning however if tomorrow's activities leave the crew tired, it may be that NASA will decide to wave their reentry another 24 hours to Friday.

[Edited by Robert Pearlman (September 19, 2006).]

Greggy_D

I don't see why they just didn't use the RCS to maneuver as close as possible to the object for inspection. They could have stayed with the object in close proximity for a few hours and conducted an emergency EVA to retrieve the object. Was this even a projected solution?

Paul78zephyr

Robert,Thanks for the posts of those great pictures. Honestly, I could not see it in the original video footage you posted. Yahoo had same/similar video at their website with the object highlighted so it could be seen - it was only a dot in that video. Could be a plastic bag, it seems transluscent. Does your source have an estimate of how far away from Atlantis the object is?

Paul

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Greggy_D:Was this even a projected solution?

As mentioned above (but added after you posted), mission managers are not concerned by what appears to be a "plastic bag" in the photographs shown above. There is no need for further observation or retrieval.

The overall concern is not so much about the debris itself but where it might have originated. Even if clear and close-up imagery existed of the piece, they might still want to examine the orbiter to verify that additional damage (if any) was not also present from where it came.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by Paul78zephyr:Honestly, I could not see it in the original video footage you posted. Yahoo had same/similar video at their website with the object highlighted so it could be seen - it was only a dot in that video.

To be clear: the dot in the video and the "bag" pictured above are not the same debris. The plastic bag — if it is a plastic bag, and that is not verified — was reported and photographed by the crew. The "dot" that is of concern was first and only seen by the ground earlier in the day.

[Edited by Robert Pearlman (September 19, 2006).]

Greggy_D

I guess my point is......if you examine and/or retrieve the debris you'll know exactly what it is and where it came from. Then you can focus your damage assessment on that exact originating area (instead of guessing).

[Edited by Greggy_D (September 19, 2006).]

John K. Rochester

quote:Originally posted by Greggy_D:I don't see why they just didn't use the RCS to maneuver as close as possible to the object for inspection.

As it is a smaller mass it's orbit would not deteriorate as fast as the shuttle, so by now it may be in a different orbital plane, it's not as easy as just firing the RCS over to the object. Orbital Mechanics make for extremely complicated maneuvers...

[Edited by John K. Rochester (September 20, 2006).]

Robert Pearlman

NASA mission managers have cleared shuttle Atlantis for a landing on Thursday after having the STS-115 crew complete their inspection of the orbiter's thermal protection system today.